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THE ERSHAD PERIOD
The army chief of staff, Lieutenant General Hussain Muhammad Ershad, seized control of
government on March 24, 1982. He proclaimed Martal law in the country and made himself
chief Martal law administrator. He dismantled the structure of democratic government. He
suspended the constitution, disbanded parliament, prohibited all political activities and deprived
the president, vice president and cabinet minister of their offices. After that he officially took
over the presidency by December 1983. He declared to returning the democratic rule within two
years but it continued till 1990.
Ershad contributed to developments in infrastructure and socio-economic growths,
divesting some nationalized industries. Development activities opened the door for civil
construction works, rural electrification, trade, businesses, roads, bridges and culverts etc. he
introduced the Upo-Zilla System. His government converted 460 thanas in rural in rural
Bangladesh into Upo-Zillas in phases over a couple of year. It became the nerve-centre of
democratic at the grass-root level. A civil & criminal court was set up in each Upo-Zillas.
Officers from various departments like education, agriculture, health, family planning etc were
placed to the Upo-Zilla villages for nation building. He brought stability to Bangladesh Armed
forces. He has twice been honored as a United Nations laureate, for contributions on population
and environmental issues. Though Ershad regime was full of developments in all sectors, it was
an autocratic government and full of corruptions. So, civil society groups, cultural and women’s
organizations activities along with the two major parties, the BNP and Awami league joined
together in united movement to down the autocratic president Ershad. This movement forced
Ershad to step down. Finally, on December 4, 1990 Ershad resigned and handed over his power

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to the head of the three month neutral transitional government, chief justice of Supreme Court,
Shahabuddin Ahmed.
To sum up, reviewing the activities of the president Ershad I can say that Martal law was
against the democracy and he acted like a dictator .But democracy is our basic need to live freely
in the country. Though his regime was full of development but people wanted the corruption free
democratic country. So, from there we can say that corruption is the main cause falling down any
government and no government can exist without ensuring liberty. So, ensuring the good
governance was the only solution on that period.
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